Effects of Resistance
by PigDogAmerican
Summary: From the ashes of the old world, a harder people have arisen, willing to do what is necessary for survival in a cold, dark galaxy where ancient evils lurk. Yet fate has never been kind to humanity and no change, small or large, will affect what is to come.
1. Prologue: Cloven Year

****07-Aug-1975 [17:54:23 GMT]****

Marseille burned.

The seat of power for the United Nations, the unifying government of all the surviving remnants of humanity across Earth, was crumbling into ashes amidst the screams and gunfire of citizen and soldier alike as black smoke from the raging fires blocked the sky and turned the sun crimson red.

Natalie Parker moved towards a lone balcony jutting from her mother's estate at the edge of the city, near the shores of the Mediterranean as the world fell before her. She had only vague memories of the Chimeran Occupation, most times colored with the towering pillars of strength that were her mother and long missing General Cartwright, keeping what was to her the unseen chimeran menace at bay with nothing more than their own bravery and will.

Yet as she had grown, the truth of the devastation that had been wrought by the inhuman invaders had become known to her. Still it was one thing to understand, and quite another to actually see. She imagined that this was what the end of the world would had looked like to those who came before.

A massive fireball engulfed the center of the city, the shock wave felt by her even from where she stood.

"That was the detachment guarding the entrance to this part of the city." The gruff, urgent voice of her guardian, Colonel James Grayson, spoke beside her. She felt some amusement that even now he couldn't sneak up on her, like he did with everyone else. She compared it to a sixth sense once, how she always had the drop on him, to which he never replied. "Come on Natalie, we're leaving now."

Another of his insistent tugs broke her out of the haze that had clouded her mind since she had first seen the city that had raised her being ravaged so mercilessly.

Roughly pulling her arm out of his grasp, she mimicked the commanding voice her mother, had used to great effect, hoping to impress upon him her seriousness. "I'm not leaving without my mother, 'Colonel'."

Rolling his eyes and grabbing her arm for a second time, Grayson turned for the door of her room, pulling Natalie along by strength alone. "General Parker is overseeing evacuations at the docks for the entire damn city and she can't do that if she knows you're not safe so come with me now, you stubborn girl."

Natalie gritted her teeth at that. "Take me to her then. I'm sure we will be safer in the company of her forces than alone."

An amused chuckled, sounding more like a growl from the deep voice of Grayson gave her, her answer. "You'll be of little use to anybody there, Parker. She doesn't need any distractions while she has the lives of thousands are depending on her."

A heated response from Natalie was cut off as they left the room and he pulled her into the main atrium. "Those damn savages are tearing into the city, Nat. Your mother is going to be leaving soon enough because it won't be our city for much longer."

To hear the words coming from James, the soldier-guardian of her childhood, made what was happening so much more like reality and whatever thoughts of fighting back against their attackers that had entered her mind vanished as fast as they had come. "Do you know what is going on...everywhere else?"

An unconscious snarl crossed Grayson's features as he answered, "All contact has been lost with everything near the Rhine-Danube DMZ, and reports are popping all over the god damned planet about Cloven contact. They're everywhere, somehow. That's all I know"

Their constant foot steps echoed in the silence of the estate as she looked up in confusion, "But how, last we they were just talking about sightings and minor...skirmishes?"

Grayson picked up where she left off, "Its something else they have with them, Nat. Something I saw once in Russia." At that, he stayed silent and she could tell by the look on his face he wouldn't say anymore.

Another dull boom of an explosion, this one seemingly much closer, shook the house as they reached the plain wooden door, the armored soldier making sure to put Natalie behind him as he pushed it open.

A convoy of armored vehicles was rolling down the two way street directly in front of her mother's house, from the direction of the docks to the east.

Grayson quickly took the lead and Natalie struggled to match his pace, annoyed with the way he continued to handle her but not strong enough to stop him. The convoy came to a stop and debarking soldiers clad in their charcteristic blue tinted carapace armor began rapidly preparing defenses and barricadesall along the wide street.

Stopping to confront random soldier, Grayson had to yell to be heard over the powerful engines of the trucks. "Where is your commanding officer, private!"

Natalie watched as the man pointed towards an officer surrounded by his command squad unloading from one of the convoys more heavily armored vehicles, already communicating on a brick-like sat-comm.

Finally managing to pull the sleeve of her shirt out of Grayson's hands as they moved towards the officer, Natalie looked up when she heard several deep booms, to see barely visible streaks of wreckage and fire in free fall high above their heads. "Why do we need to talk to this guy? Shouldn't we be getting out of the city?"

Shouldering his plasma carbine, the black armored soldier responded, "UN Command and SRPA are keeping a tight leash on air traffic and sat-comm is restricted to encryption password use, so unless you want to swim all the way to Africa this guy is our best bet."

Now seeing that the officer had two stars on the side of his helmet and shoulder guard, marking him as a major general, Natalie stopped behind Grayson as he began speaking. "General, I'm Colonel Grayson, ATO operative. I'm escorting a VIP and I need coordinates to the nearest evac site."

Ignoring the mutterings of his subordinates regarding the 'SRPA goon' the General spared him a glance behind his protective visor before he responded, his face concentrated on a map of the city. "Contact was lost with the flights escorting staff from the UN headquarters, including the Assembly and Security Council, and High Command isn't sending any more, Colonel. Whatever the Cloven are using for anti-air is effective to all hell and any risk of those sub-humans getting airborne and possibly off-world is considered too high a risk for any further evacuation. For all intents and purposes the European continent has already been declared Gray Territory."

Natalie looked incredulously towards Grayson, "They can't do that can they?"

The brown haired former Englishman snarled in protest. "There are tens of thousands of civilians still in the city, not to mention two entire divisions." At this, Grayson pointed towards Natalie standing beside him. "This is General Parker's daughter, get her on the channel and tell her we need an evac now!"

Another explosion, only blocks away from their position send an already tottering building crashing down upon itself, sending up a large plume of dust. The dozens of solders in the the mechanized company begna rushing towards the barricades, preparing their last line of defense against the cities attackers.

"The remnants of 2nd and 3rd Division, have been ordered to perform a holding action against the invading force. That's us, Colonel. We aren't going anywhere so I suggest you prepare for imminent contact and give time for remaining citizens to evacuate at the docks." The armored general spoke with finality, his eyes resolved to his fatal duty.

Natalie startled as she watched Grayson, with a curse and a blur of movement, aim his carbine towards the general's face. The sight of the man, cross eyed as he stared incredulously at the gun barrel in his face, would have been humorous to her under different circumstances.

By now the entirety of the general's squad had their own weapons aimed at Grayson, but he payed them no attention, "A plasma round from this weapon and distance will have significant consequences for your well-being major general. My authority as a senior SRPA operative demands your compliance in all matters regarding non-human threats, and if I say you will contact Field Marshal Parker and inform her of the status of her daughter, you will do it."

The stare off drew out for several seconds and Natalie began to get the distinct feeling that Grayson was maybe causing more harm than good.

A strange whooshing sound followed by a startled cry from front of the company caused Natalie to look up to see a massive blur tumbling wildly through the sky directly towards their position. Pointing up towards what she could now see was a UN tank, she yelled at the top of her lungs, "Watch out!"

She had barely said it when she found herself being thrown to the side, her breath being knocked out of her as she landed on the pavement several feet away.

Looking up from her spot on the ground, Natalie watched in horror as Grayson was slammed headlong by the careening war machine, his body thrown like a puppet for nearly three meters before slamming into a supply truck as the tank came to a rest only a bare meter from his unmoving body, crashing through the immobile mechanized unit along the way.

"James!"

Her eyes only on Grayson, ignoring the moans and yelling of the surviving soldiers, she ran towards his prone form before gently falling to her knees next to him. She stopped herself before she touched him, unsure if she would only cause more damage as her tearing eyes search his face for any life

"Come on big guy, tell me your okay..."

She could not tell what injuries he had sustained beneath his thick carapace armor, but she knew it had to be bad. After what seemed like a lifetime, she could hear the softest release of breath and she knew he wasn't gone yet.

Resolving her mind, she finally pushed him onto his back, hoping that the position would help his breathing and wouldn't aggravate his wounds further. She watched for a few moments after she settled him, his body and face uncomfortably still, before the sounds of the injured finally caused her to turn around.

The street had been devastated, and the survivors were obviously trying to help their injured comrades, and collect the dead.

A blinking light alerted her to the body of the General a few meters behind, along with his dead retinue, lying flattened by the unrelenting mass of metal and ceramic that had rolled over him. At his side was his his blinking sat-comm miraculously intact and she rushed to retrieve it, stumbling in her civilian dress as the full scope of what was happening dawned on her once again. She had been stupid if she had ever thought she would have been prepared for this.

Reaching down, she grabbed the heavy contraption before pressing the answer button. "Hello! Hello please, this is Natalie Parker, we need an evac. Many men are badly wounded and Colonel-"

Before she could finish, aware that her voice was becoming increasingly agitated but incapable of doing anything about it, the caller interrupted, "Natalie, what are you doing there, you were supposed to have been evacuated by Colonel Grayson, where is Major-General Stanforth?" A single hear felt sob tore itself from her throat as the voice of her mother responded.

Struggling to regain her composure she responded, "Mum, I'm sorry, its my fault James was trying to get the general to help and then he threatened him, then a goddamned flying tank came through and flattened everything, now the general is dead and James is hurt, badly! I don't know what to do!"

By now the remaining officers had gathered the surviving men and they were rushing towards the barricades at the front of the former convoy, and as Natalie watch they pointed their weapons towards the empty street ahead, apparently aware of something she was not.

Her mother responded again, and Natalie concentrated on her words, trying to forget what was happening, "Don't worry sweetheart, I'm at the docks right now. I need you to tell me exactly where you are."

Shaking her head in understanding despite there being no one to see it she looked back towards the beautiful house she had grown up in, untarnished by what was occurring in the streets she had played on as a child. "Just a few dozen meters north of the house, mum. I'm surrounded by military trucks."

The line became muffled as she heard her mother talking to someone and after a few moments she began talking to Natalie again, " I need you to move somewhere safe, Natalie. Do you hear me? I'm coming for you right now. Stay on the line."

"Okay mum."

The wind direction had turned towards the sea and smoke was blowing into the street, embers from the blazing fires across the city lighting up the hazy air like fireflies. The soldiers on the barricades were all on alert as the only sounds were those of the distant fighting in other parts of the city.

Looking down towards James, she gave him a small peck on the forehead, whispering a prayer in Swahili she had learned from an African man as a child, before running towards the tense soldiers farther ahead, hoping to warn them of her mother's imminent arrival.

As she was nearing the battle line, a shout from somewhere suddenly caused the entire unit to start firing their weapons, the intensely bright light from the plasma discharges stinging Natalie's eyes even from as far back as she was and she crouched down in reflex. Standing up to see what was happening, wondering if they had merely become frightened, but instead she could see figures in the thick smoke, like dancing shadows. _That must be the Cloven...but why aren't they firing back?_

The dull roar of AP engines caused Natalie to look back towards the direction of the harbor, only to see a black dot that was rapidly growing in size. As she watched, little beads of light began to form on its front and having seen enough military demonstrations to know what was about to happenshe began running in the opposite direction she had just been going, only turning back to yell towards the still firing men. "Incoming!"

Just as she threw her body over his and shut her eyes lances of searing light poured from the shuttle's hull, slamming a bare dozen meters from the barricade and erupting in an unbearably bright explosion of kinetic and thermal energy, flashing converting air and solid matter, biological or otherwise, into vaporized molecules.

The soldiers, who had heeded Natalie's warning and ducked their heads cheered as the shuttle made a wide turn around the area and began its descent above the damaged and pockmarked street, its sleek black hull reflecting the red light of the city like a flying demon.

The segmented back hatch opened as the five meter long craft loitered a half-meter above the paved ground. A face Natalie thought she would never see again greeted her as General Parker stepped onto the ground, her face contorted in worry as she scanned the area for her daughter.

"Mother!" Natalie yelled from several meters away, still next to the unmoving form of Colonel Grayson. "James needs help!"

Not wasting a moment, General Parker began ordering the surviving stretchers, "I want two of you to grab a stretcher from the drop ship and collect that man there, the rest of you get in! We are leaving in twenty seconds."

The men quickly moved to complete the general's orders, two of them quickly and efficiently fitting the painfully unmoving SRPA colonel onto the stretcher as the rest piled into the dropship.

Natalie watched as the blue armored soldiers carried Grayson upon the stretcher, praying to whatever god watched over humanity that he would live through this.

One by one the last of the soldiers piled into the shuttle, and at last Natalie came to her mother, waiting at the lip of the entrance. Rachel Parker had aged well, and her favored brown leather flight jacket still graced her shoulders as it had since Natalie was a young child. Her mother merely smiled warmly at her, before immediately heading back to the armored cockpit where the shuttle pilot sat amongst the holographic displays, Natalie close behind.

"Mum, what about the rest of the city..."

Rachel didn't turn around, merely shaking her head, "We got as much out as we could, but the Cloven are closing in on us too fast, Natalie, the fleet won't risk it. We're going to head south and rendezvous with the evacuation forces on the African coast, then with the shuttles that will take us into orbit."

Staring at the smoking ruins of the city, Natalie shook her head. "So its true then. We are just going to run away? Where are we going to go?"

Rachel sat in the co-pilot seat strapping herself in and fixing the dropship's communicator onto her head. "The moon, the Core is large enough to support as much of the population as we can get, until we figure out what to do with the Cloven."

Stopping by the side of Grayson's stretcher, squeezed in between the two rows of soldiers buckling into their seats, she put her hand to his cold forehead, his face still damnably still. "Forgive me, mum if the idea of living in dank chimeran ruins doesn't sound so terribly appealing."

"They're hardly dank, dear."

As the shuttle began lifting of the ground, angling towards the south around the towering UN building just a few blocks down, something caught Natalie's eye as she looked towards the barricades.

An unnaturally tall figure with willowy limbs stood eerily still, watching the rising shuttle intently before it seemed to lock eyes with Natalie herself. She instantly felt a shudder quake through her body as she saw its eyes touch hers. Then as the door of the shuttle began to close and thrust vectors angle, it seemed to vanish as soon as she blinked before a solid thunk emanated from the the top of the hull.

The noise was clearly audible and the entire contingent in the troop bay looked up as one.

"Mum..."

Several more thuds occurred, so rapidly it sounded like the beating of rain before a horrendous metal screech and the sudden intake of wind from the ruptured hull caused Natalie to throw her body on Grayson's.

From there it was little more than a blur of screams, wind and the blaring mechanical alarms of the shuttle. But through it all, Natalie could feel the eyes of the creature on the back of her head until, with a massive slam, everything turned black.

__As she stared at the world above, she turned her head to see a man. Though his face was unmoving, his eyes were warm, a shade lighter than her bright hazel. __

__Looking up at the impossibly high exit to this abyss, she curled up and thought that perhaps it was better here.__

__The man slowly came up beside her, and she looked up into his pale face. Again there was no malice or threat anywhere upon him, only a compassionate understanding that touched her memory. 'I know you.'__

__He smiled, a small smile that nevertheless seemed like so much coming from him. 'In a way. I never knew you, really, but I took comfort in your life all the same, before the end.'__

__Looking around, the darkness that surrounded her did not feel threatening, until she looked down and a single shimmering light, like a twinkling star sat far below them. She did not understand why, but the moment she looked upon it, it seemed to focus on her, and a feeling of overwhelming dread touched her.__

__'Do not look upon it.' The man spoke again, lifting up her chin away from that evil thing. 'It can not harm you here, as long as you do not let it.'__

__'Where are we?' Natalie asked, feeling strangely content where ever it was.__

__The man smiled that small smile again, 'In your mind, or a part of it, that has yet to awaken.'__

__'What, that's not...' she stopped, incredulous but still convinced by his words all the same.__

__'There is much that you do not know of yourself, Natalie, and I imagine the good Colonel never truly informed you of the circumstances of your birth.' He raised his hand to stop her as she grew defensive of her brave mother, his smile growing a bit wider. 'But she could not have truly known.'__

__'She is a general now, if you must know and know what?' __

__'That you and I are closer to each other than she ever imagined, but you are better than me. You have a chance to do what I could not and remake the evil that will eventually consume us all.'__

__She did not understand, and looked at him again trying to understand what was going on. 'Who are you?'__

__'You will know that yourself, in time. The road ahead will be a hard one, Natalie and you will sacrifice much. But I will be here to help you,in whatever way I can. But now you must return and face what is to come.'__

__So she rose, and what occurred in her own mind became a haze, but she would remember in time.__

A harsh cry erupted from Natalie's lips as her mind returned to her, and was immediately assailed by pain. Looking down towards her chest, a black rod protruded rudely from her stomach and below it her entire body below it felt cold and she could do nothing to move her sprawled legs.

Tears of pain stinging her eyes, she struggled in vain to do something, wishing she had remained unconscious. The young woman looked around her, seeing only the ruined remnant of the ship and the bodies of several soldiers spread over the ground. Grayson or her mother were nowhere to be seen.

Farther in the distance she made out a structure that she instantly recognized as the fortress on the island If, only a few kilometers from Marseille proper. Even from here, she could see the great plume of smoke rising from the city, only the faintest of booms letting her know thousands were still perishing within its limits.

A presence she suddenly felt caused her to look forward, despite the even more agonizing pain it caused, to face the same creature she had seen in the city, its gaunt face staring at her in the same way it had when she had first seen it. Up close she could truly make out its features, clad in little more that soiled rags. Meeting its eyes, she could see they were a near luminous yellow-orange, framed in blackened, sunk eye sockets.

Natalie began to struggle halfheartedly against her wound as the creature began taking long and wispy steps towards her, its hands never moving from its side as it continued to regard her the same way she in a way that she could not understand but feared all the same.

Looking to either side of her, she could only see the wreckage and the dead. There was nothing she could do as the thing moved inevitably towards her mangled body. As she watched, the forms of several of the same creatures appeared as if from nowhere across the island, as far as the small castle and beyond low walls, all watching her intently without a hint of humanity in their faces.

Finally it loomed before her, its gaze locking onto hers like a predator against prey. A small, minor tug on her body that seemed to come from nowhere was the only warning Natalie received before,with a hideous sucking sound and pain that nearly made her retch, her body was pulled by an invisible force through the protruding bar, a scream of utter agony tearing through her lips.

Tears now streamed readily from her eyes as she realized she was going to die here, or worse. Futilely she tried to shake the creature's invisible grip off of her, only to find she was completely immobilized. Whether it was because she was now fully paralyzed or if whatever the Cloven was doing was completely halting her she did not know.

Terror racked her mind as the thing brought her closer to its face, its rancid breath and mottled skin, stained with crimson liquid, nothing compared to the eldritch eyes which had never once left hers.

"They are calling to us..." it spoke with a voice like sandpaper. "...Can you hear them?"

As it spoke, Natalie felt the very air become charged and a vacuum seemed to form around her. As it stared once more into her eyes, she could see things, like the after image of a camera flash.

Things from the darkness that writhed and consumed, undoing the light of stars themselves, until the sky was filled with nothing but their hunger.

The vision faded, and the creature looked at her once more, "...You see. They are taking all of us..." At this the pressure around her body increased to the point of pain and she screamed out. "...Only then will you know what it means to truly suffer..."

The pressure continued and Natalie felt her entire body being pressed down upon, to the point that she could feel her bones creaking and blood poured from her nose.

One last cry reached her lips before she could do no more, the Cloven never once lifting its eyes from her face.

A blur of movement out of the corner of her eye made her look and see her mother, bloody and enraged, swinging a metal bar towards the back of the creatures head. The small spark of hope was abruptly crushed as the bar suddenly came to a halt only a few millimeters for the Cloven's head. A sickening snap made Natalie moan in despair as her mother's fingers were crushed by the monster's invisible force, her voice yelling out in agony.

With the barest flicker of movement from the thing's hand and without ever once turning its head, Rachel rose into the air alongside Natalie, now as imprisoned as her daughter.

Breathing heavily, the dark brunette turned as best she could towards Natalie, the sorrow in her eyes contrasted by the small smile she wore. "Be brave, my darling daughter."

Out of tears, Natalie merely nodded, "I love you, mum."

The Cloven, content with its silence looked upon Rachel as she in turn looked at it, "Finish it, abomination."

Without turning its face, the creatures bulging yellow eyes turned to look upon Natalie for only a moment, before turning back and, with the a slight twist of its head, Rachel simply disappeared into a crimson mist.

For a few moments Natalie was utterly uncomprehending, unseeing of what had just happened to the woman who had birthed her, had raised to to be the person she was now. Even as a light sheen of crimson red settled upon her face and body, she did not understand.

The thing regarded her for a moment longer before speaking, "...You must be free of them...to awaken."

A second creature came beside the first, and Natalie could only watch as it carried the unmoving Grayson in its grip, his unconscious form ready to be slaughtered like her mother snapping something deep within.

It overtook Natalie then, and her consciousness began to sink into the depths of herself. The part of her she had always felt in the depths of her being sprang forth in inhuman fury, tattering the fragile ego of her human mind. The physical world faded, and the world became a place of shades, subject to her will.

Reaching out with her once immobile hand, she grasped the neck of the being of abominable light that had been her torment and squeezed, relishing in the tearing of sinew and breaking of bone as its head separated from its body and it fell to the ground. Still hanging in the empty air, with a singular purpose born of hatred and malice she reached out with her mind to each individual Cloven that surrounded the crash and tore them apart form the inside out. In the back of her lost consciousness she felt a sort of contentment emanating from the entire group, even they were ripped apart by the awakening of Natalie's true mind, which only served in her unthinking thoughts to give them all ever more gruesome ends.

As the moments continued, she felt what was left of her conscious mind sink further and further away, and as the last Cloven was broken into pieces, the world as she had once understood it, fully receded and the thing that had awoken took its place as the center of her mind before it too faded from view.

**A/N: This is a rewrite of my old Mass Effect/R:FoM Crossover, about three years in coming. In case you were wondering, you don't have to worry about me abandoning this one, since I actually know what the hell I am doing this time. Which is always good. Please let me know if you see any mistakes I might have missed.**


	2. Stirrings

**07-Aug-2039 [12:27:12 SUS]**

**Pavonis Mons, Mars **

The various personnel of SRPA-03 consciously moved out of Jacob Shepherd's path as he advanced down the winding corridors of the subterranean base. He couldn't really blame them as he mostly ignored the scene he was causing, fully armored with his helmet tucked under his arm.

Shepherd knew he looked like hell, covered in grime and probably more than a bit of blood and viscera. Two standard days stuck underground in the Marsian Tunnels coated with the filth of untold eons of habitation by bestial creatures would do that to a man.

He couldn't say he was anymore content with the situation that those around him. In fact he had been looking forward to the prospect of a very long shower and a change of dress, at the very least being able to shed his hard-suit. Regardless of how powerful a soft-suit's artificial musculature was, lugging around a hundred kilograms of armor for days on end was never an ideal task. But it was not to be and instead he had been ordered to immediately report for debrief, shower and sleep be damned.

At least he couldn't smell himself.

So, allowing his squad to grab some R&amp;R, he set off to find his commander and if any tried to complain to him about the thin trail of _something_ he was leaving in his wake, they likely have only moments to regret their decision.

Finally he reached the personal quarters of Colonel Julius Mathison, commander of the Tactical Operation's famous Victor Company, one of the premier companies of SRPA famous paramilitary force, colloquially known as Black Ops to the dramatic since its inception.

The doors slid open to reveal a rather comfortable office, the bare gunmetal gray interior sparsely lit. Shepherd had expected only his commanding officer, but instead he saw another two men, one in the flesh and another a hologram as they looked over a real color, three dimensional map of what seemed to be a slice a particular portion of the galaxy.

As he marched in the unknown officer in a stark black soft-suit looked up and nearly caused Shepherd to misstep. His eyes pupils were a near luminescent yellow and his skin unnaturally pale, beyond even that of most Selenics. Clearly a Sentinel.

Still he moved forward as Mathison looked up, standing at attention a foot from the table before saluting. "Lieutenant Shepherd reported as ordered, sir."

Saluting and ordering him to be at ease, the Colonel rose a single eyebrow at Jacob's appearance. "Shepherd, I suppose given the circumstances, your state of...dress should be overlooked." commented Mathison, his youthful face nonetheless hardened from nearly a century as a combat soldier.

Julius Mathison was one of the few members of SRPA's paramilitary forces, who could claim to have served during both the Chimeran Occupation and the Cloven Year and have lived to talk about it.

Looking first to his incorporeal colleague Mathison gave introductions, "This is Admiral John Harper, commander of the ASV Odmazda and the 1st Reconnaissance Group." The life-size hologram reached forward to shake Jacob's hand, the haptic implants in Shepherds' hands allowing the gesture.

"This is Major Jack Capelli, Sentinel-II." Mathison said of the other one, to which the trans-human merely nodded in recognition. Jacob was relatively sure he recognized the name. If so this Capelli had a father or other relative in the same position he was in once, as a first generation Sentinel during the Occupation.

Shepherd noted the respect which the Colonel gave the Sentinel.

The Sentinels-IIs were still a divisive issue within the senior levels of SRPA, and even among the rank and file, despite the fact that they had been active since the late 1990s. Their origins were unknown to the lower orders, including, he was sure Colonel Mathison. But he found it interesting to note that most of the veterans from the Occupation rarely spoke ill of the group, past or present.

It fit with the legendary status the old Sentinels had amongst Tactical Operations, especially veterans of the Chimeran Occupation.

"Now to business. You're here because we have a mission, straight from the top," Mathison continued, his grim face conveying the seriousness of the situation. "The Naval Corps recently lost contact with a substantial recon group, and Admiral Harper has been charged with finding out what happened to it."

"Any idea what happened to it." asked Shepherd, falling into his military mindset.

The blue hologram of Admiral Harper answered, "They were on a mission scouting out a system with a recently discovered Mass Relay. They were in system during their last communication, a simple update, and succeeding attempt at communication has been unsuccessful."

"Isn't every single Corps vessels equipped with quantum comms technology?" Shepherd asked in confusion. "What are the chances of every single one of those being incapable of responding."

"Not high," Harper simply replied.

Looking at the star system marked on the holo-map, roughly four thousand light years from Sol, he nodded in understanding. "What is my team's involvement in this, sir?"

Manipulating the table's controls, Mathison pulled out a rough outline of the known portions of the vast subterranean tunnel network beneath the Marsian soil. "Roughly five percent of this map has been attributed to the findings of Specter-Gamma. You're team is widely recognized as one of the most experienced combat units in the Dominion, Shepherd; TacOps or otherwise. The Princeps herself is considering accommodating your squad personally."

Suddenly feeling distinctly uncomfortable with the round about praise, alongside the unwavering gave of all three men surrounding the table, he continued to stand at rest, his hand set tightly behind his back.

He saw Mathison subtly smirk at his plight before continuing, "You'll be accompanying Victor Company, on board Admiral Harper's flagship. We are preparing for _any_ contingency Shepherd, and while Marsian ferals may not truly represent whatever the chimera have out there, you're still one of our closest damn things to an expert we have on them."

Shepherd's eyes wandered to The Sentinel, Capelli, and wonder if he concurred with Colonel Mathison's assessment.

Jacob thought he should ask him.

"What's your take on all this, sir?" Shepherd asked confidently, his dark brown eyes locking on to the bright gold of the Sentinel-II.

He could see a slight raise of the pale man's eyebrows, no doubt caught off guard by the baseline human's questioning. It was more than most ever saw from a Sentinel. Their attitude towards most regular humans seemed to be...guarded, to say the least.

A fact which contributed to the suspicion many treated them with.

Nonetheless after a moment the super-soldier responded, his voice low and gruff, but not impolite. "I have no more information on the situation than you, lieutenant. My group and I will be accompanying Tactical Operations forces just as yours."

After a moment, Mathison chose that moment to speak again, both he and Harper subtly impressed with Shepherd's candor, "I want you and your team at Campus Martius by 13:00 hours standard time for take off, lieutenant. That's thirty minutes."

At that he took in Shepherd's bedraggled state once again, "Maybe clean yourself off too, I don't want feral shit coating Admiral Harper's ship."

At this the blue hologram nodded decisively, "Agreed."

* * *

SRPA-13 sat many kilometers below the frigid surface of Europa; one of the four prominent moons of the Jovian sub-system, at the terminus where the granite-hard icy crust and the vast subterranean ocean met. A facility dedicated to obscure research and unknown projects, there was little of interest there that could concern any of the senior staff of SRPA. So it was with a great deal of reserved judgment that Doctor Herbert Sawicki, who held the joint titles of Executive Director of SRPA and Director of the Department of Science and Technology found himself within the concealed base.

The synchronized boot steps of Herbert's two guards easily kept step with the unassuming man, their powerful armored forms taking up most of the small passageway and suitably distancing any base personnel from impeding Sawicki's progress to the base commander. Their presence was a mere formality, all senior staff required escort when beyond their own station, but Herbert took assurance by their presence nontheless.

A faint whisper to his side made Sawicki turn his head, expecting to see either a member of the base's staff or his own escort speaking, but nothing suggested such and after a moment he shrugged it off. Truthfully he found the base to be disconcerting. He assumed it was the relative isolation of the place, so far from truly settled space in the inner system, as well as the general strangeness of the men and women here. He knew from personal experience that the life of the academic could quickly lead to the development of eccentric attitudes and practices, but there was simply something...odd about those here.

Perhaps he would later recommend a personnel exchange. He was sure some of the staff he had seen had not left the base since its founding fifty years before. Also a more stringent enforcement the agoge, of which SRPA researchers were capable of being unduly lax. The shirking of military duties could only be overlooked so much, and he was sure these people here had reached that point. After Remembrance Day, he would be sure to go about the process.

The whole situation resolved in him to settle matters here quickly and return to Luna to take a handle of recent events alongside Princeps Batia.

Herbert frowned as he thought of the woman. For sixty years they had been professional and friendly colleagues, with her as the head of the Dominion and he SRPA, but over the last decade he had begun to notice a change in her. It was subtle but, he suspected the ever looming threat of their unseen Enemy was beginning to affect her mind.

He knew she had never fully recovered from the losses inflicted on her by the Cloven, and the way in which the threat had been eradicated. Yet he never suspected she would succumb the same way her husband had. He hoped there was still time to reverse the signs.

A final elevator deposited him at the lowest floor of the base, only a few meters of metal between them and the frigid and black waters of Europa.

Without having to wait the door slid open to reveal the personal office of the base commander. Pausing to signal his two men to wait outside the door he strode into the room, in the center of which was a thick sheet of synthetic material used as a viewing port.

Below it, the primordial ocean was lit by a series of powerful floodlights, concerted beams of light lancing deep into the brackish water. The overall effect still did little more than highlight how truly vast the scale of the ocean's depths, the spear of light nearly swallowed by the darkness. It was an unexpectedly discomforting sight and Herbert lifted his eyes, focusing on the his target.

The base commander for his part stood at the far side of the room, his back towards Herbert and his head down as he apparently concentrated on something.

Stopping a foot from the desk which separated them, Sawicki watched the man for a moment before calling out, "Commander Dentweiler."

Seemingly startling the man, Herbert watched him turn around, staring at him for a moment before walking forward, around his desk. "Director Sawicki."

In his hands was a small spherical ball, dark in color with a murky hue. Much like the ocean below their feet.

Suspicious of what it was, Herbert questioned, "Is that the artifact you were speaking of?"

"Why yes, Director," Dentweiler stated, his voice immediately putting Sawicki on edge. "We believe this ocean holds many invaluable wonders, and when we found this I simply knew only a mind such as your was worthy of seeing it first."

As Commander Dentweiler spoke, Sawicki began to get the impression of a discordance in his voice, and Herbert's hand slowly drifted towards the plasma pistol at his hip. "Commadner Dentweiler, I'm ordering you to contain and dispose of that artifact, now."

A brutal piercing wail seemed to emanate from the innocuous ball, and what felt like hours later Sawicki opened his eyes to find himself face down on the view port, his gaze falling into the depths of the dark ocean.

A groan came from his lips as he felt himself unable to move. The boots of Dentweiler appeared in his vision, coming to a stop only a foot from his face.

The man began to talk again, but this time it seemed another voice had overlayed upon his, much deeper and darker. "Contain? You cannot contain us, Director."

"What are you?" Sawicki felt himself mumble.

The voice continued, and while the obviously corrupted Dentweiler continued to speak, Herbert felt as if the true voice was coming from below him.

"How soon your kind forget. Perhaps the fallibility of lesser minds is a blessing. For the rest of them at least, it will make the coming times easier to bear."

Herbert felt himself succumbing to darkness, a thousand eyes shining from the world below.

"We have much to do."

** : DATA ENTRIES: **

**Special Research Projects Administration: **Chartered by the U.S. Government in 1935 without any official mission statements or goals, the Administration was secretly tasked to develop advanced technologies and weapon systems to content with a united Europe. As the threat of the Chimera gradually became known to the US and the European powers, SRPA was tasked with the development of conventional and non-conventional means defeat the inhuman creatures.

Throughout its inception and beyond SRPA has played a pivotal role in human developments. After the end of the Chimeran Occupation, SRPA, as the last remaining functional US government authority ceded sovereignty to the newly founded United Nations and went on to most of the interplanetary infrastructure and technology that would allow the human species to survive the Cloven Year of 1975.

SRPA was instrumental in the foundation of the Sol Dominion after the collapse of the UN, serving as the new government's primary research, exploration and information agency.

**Grey Tech: **First discovered in 1952 by SRPA, these hyper-advanced technological artifacts eventually came to be a source of much promise and peril. An arms race of sorts developed between the three factions of Earth at the time as Human and Chimera sought to use the powerful artifacts against each other while the Cloven themselves, despite having a large known portion of the paleotechnology, seemingly collected them for their own pseudo-religious rituals.

In the aftermath of the Chimeran Occupation, SRPA and the Cloven competed heavily for the recovery of these artifacts, especially leading up to the Cloven Year.

As of 2039 it is now accepted theory that the chimera are in fact the actual creators of Grey Tech, as it forms the basis of all chimeran high technology, and consequently human technology. Despite this, a comprehensive understanding of Grey Tech has proved elusive. All current forms of utilization are the result of what is essentially bootstrapping vastly inferior computing devices and tapping into their internal components.

Comprehensive usage of Grey Tech on ships requires requires multiple devices, as each system can only perform one function (ie. A device capable of generating artificial gravity is not reliably capable of receiving energy transfers.)

Examples of Grey Tech technical specifications and abilities include:

-Quantum/wormhole communication and energy transfer milliseconds before any energy was actually sent.

-The ability to produce exotic negative energy radiation capable of the creation of stable wormholes for transluminal travel and ship component transfer.(See: Malikov-Sawicki Bridge)

-The manipulation of gravity to produce pseudo-reactionless propulsion and true anti-gravity. The commonly accepted theory is Grey Tech manipulation of a hypothetical particle dubbed the 'graviton.'

-The ability to scale destructive power exponentially with the connection of separate modules.

-Extreme internal complexity, theorized to be an example of femtotechnology.

**A/N: RL concerns held up this chapter's release more than I would have preferred, and it still wasn't exactly what I was hoping for. Expect quicker update times in the future. Next chapter will deal with the Citadel races. I will be following the example set my other ME fics and insert Codex-style entries into the ends of each chapter involving human POV. I'm considering putting a more comprehensive series possibly on my BIO where less plot relevant entries will go. Let me know if that interests you. Please RxR. Thank you!**


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